The golden land has fertile paddies, forests of teak, oil and gas fields, and the world's finest jade and rubies. But 40 years of mismanagement—first under the late Ne Win, who ruled with a mix of socialism and superstition, then the SPDC, which prefers heavy-handed oppression with its paranoia—have ruined Burma. The generals continue to ignore the results of the 1990 election, which the NLD won by a landslide; their brutal intransigence has earned economic sanctions and international condemnation.
Still, more than 100,000 travelers annually—everyone from budget-conscious backpackers to affluent seniors—have come anyway, for a variety of reasons: bargain handicrafts; terra incognita curiosity; another patch on their photojournalist-style vests. I understand the attraction. Eight years ago, while researching a book about Burma, I took the night train to Mandalay, witnessed sunrise across Lake Inle, cruised on an ancient steamer down the Irrawaddy River. But the locals I met privately despaired at the shabby condition of their country and its corrupt, repressive tyrants, who showed no inclination to cede power.
On my latest trip, as before, Burma feels like a Lariam-fueled dream, surreal and uneasy. Clocks run 30 minutes earlier than in neighboring Thailand, and nearly every major town and river has two names: the official handle dictated by the SPDC and a historic appellation. Many people invoke this alternate reality, which conjures a better, bygone time, as a quiet form of protest. Rangoon, they whisper, not Yangon. In this looking-glass world, bookstalls sell 1969 issues of Reader's Digest while I watch CNN in my hotel room.
Tourism proponents believe that a business-first approach has led the generals to lighten up. There are plenty of repressive countries, the logic goes, so why penalize Burma?Travelers put money in the pockets of ordinary Burmese; their presence also deters the government from repeating the horrific 1988 crackdowns.
"Burma has been isolated for so long that further isolation isn't going to help," says Kate Maxwell, a former custom-travel agent in New York who says she felt conflicted about booking clients to the police state. However, she adds, "people should not go just to check off Burma on the list of countries they've visited. They should go to be a witness, to interact, to show people how democracy can work."
Yvette Mahon, director of the London-based Burma Campaign U.K., doesn't deny the nation's extraordinary appeal. But she counsels continued avoidance. She says Burma still stands at the far end of the spectrum of human-rights violations; according to Amnesty International, more than 1,200 political prisoners remained incarcerated as of last November.
Moreover, what distinguishes Burma from other authoritarian nations is the scale of abuse connected to tourism development and its attendant infrastructure. In the early nineties the junta evicted civilians from their homes in Mandalay and Pagan to make way for luxury hotels built in anticipation of 1997's Visit Myanmar Year. Tens of thousands of corvée laborers, including children, were put to work building roads and laying railways. Visitors also provide the regime with hard currency—both directly, through the mandatory purchase of $200 in Foreign Exchange Certificates (FEC), and indirectly, through numerous joint-venture businesses on the tourist circuit.
The boycott campaign, along with daunting visa paperwork, the FEC shakedown, restrictions on internal travel, and general post-September 11 insecurity, appear to have affected the modest tourist industry. Since 1999, when Burma counted nearly 290,000 visitors, foreign arrivals have steadily declined; between April 2001 and February 2002, barely 104,000 visitors came—about 1 percent of Thailand's annual total.
"The situation is not clear yet," says NLD spokesman U Lwin. "In spite of the big release from the prison, very important people are still there. Please let us have some time." The SPDC, he adds, "can make good propaganda that things are going smoothly in this country. It's up to you to decide."
Comments (0)
Open / Close